Serial no. 1306xxx

The F3 is strong and very solid without feeling too heavy. Its moulded handgrip allows it to sit very comfortably in the hands, minimising the possibility of slippage. Due to the winding mechanism having ball bearings, it is the smoothest I have ever encountered; there is a definite "clack" when the wind-on is complete which can be felt as well as heard. The shutter release is very positive with no danger of accidental tripping through activating the meter with a light press. I sometimes feel that the release button is a little too far towards the back of the body, but this is a very minor criticism.

A real criticism, however, is the small red button used to illuminate the LCD and ADR (Aperture Direct Readout). The design of this button is terrible as it needs to be pressed very hard with a fingernail for it to work and even then the light can flicker. It has no positive feel in that it hardly moves when pressed. This isn't a fault with the button on my particular F3 as I have tried others - and read other people's comments on it. I don't see why Nikon designed it this way and feel that it would be much better to have a button with more positive action such as the exposure lock button. Speaking of which, this button, on the front of the body within the manual shutter release lever, is very well positioned for the middle finger and allows a very quick exposure lock to be made without removing the eye from the finder. The manual shutter release lever itself must be flicked to the right in order to be in position for operation; a gentle press downwards then activates the shutter at a mechanical 1/60 second (approximately, according to the manual) which is useful in the case of battery failure. Directly above is the depth of field (stop-down) button and mirror lock-up lever. The former must be pushed in fully and held whilst rotating the latter in order to lock the mirror up; easily accomplished with the second and first fingers respectively.

The viewfinder is bright and clear with an LCD at the top left and the ADR at the top centre. I have recently read reports of the LCD having a limited life of around 8 - 10 years, even with little use. Apparently, all the segments begin to darken, making reading shutter speeds, etc. virtually impossible. I've seen no evidence of this so I'm not sure whether it will eventually affect all displays or whether it is a problem with just a few. I have replaced the K screen with the E screen as I often found the focus aids of the K screen a hindrance rather than a help. I'm able to get consistently sharp results and the finely etched lines of the E screen aid composition. I used to have a correction lens of -2D as I'm a bit short sighted but didn't wear glasses all the time. Now that I do more often than not, because my astigmatism has got a bit worse, I have put the standard eyepiece back on. With glasses, I can just about see the entire frame without moving my eye around the eyepiece, even though this isn't the HP finder.

In short, the F3 is small, very strong and a joy to use. It feels as though it will go on forever. I believe Nikon ceased production of the F3 in 2001 - *twenty-one* years after introduction! The longevity of F3 production speaks for itself.